New Zealand has some of the most spectacular scenery on earth. Included is the Fiordland National Park on the southwest coast of the South Island. Some of the most visited places in the national park are Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. What is a sound, you may ask? I myself, asked that question, and then became even more confused.
A sound is a body of water connected to the ocean, formed by a river. A fjord is formed by a glacier.
Both Milford and Doubtful sounds are actually both fjords, carved by glaciers. However, they were first named as 'sounds' by exploring sailors, and the names stuck. New Zealand partially rectified this by forming 'Fiordland National Park', which includes fourteen fjords (which in New Zealand is spelled fiord). It is all a little muddled.
We had originally planned to travel to Milford Sound when we first arrived in NZ in January. However, our trip was cancelled due to poor weather, and we decided to reschedule for a weekend trip in March.
We flew down to Queenstown, then hopped on a scenic 30-minute flight to Milford Sound. The flight itself was incredible. We flew over the mountains to the west coast and got a bird's eye view of Milford before getting on the cruise.
We could not have asked for better weather. The sun was shining, which made the water look bright blue. It was truly spectacular.
On our last trip to the South Island in late Apriel, we decided to go to Doubtful Sound, about an hour south of Milford. It is more difficult to reach, as it requires an hour-long boat ride across lake Manapouri, then an hour bus ride from the end of the lake to Doubtful Sound. From there, you have a three-hour boat tour in the fjord. Doubtful is much larger than Milford, and because of the full day journey, it is much less popular than Milford. However, it was absolutely worth it. The weather was fairly typical (rainy and gloomy), but the waterfalls came out in full force, and it gave everything an ethereal look.
So, which one was better? I'll use a cop out- they were both incredible.
Milford scenery was dramatic, with sharper and steeper cliffs. The water was a stunning shade of blue, and we had amazing weather. Doubtful was spectacular with the thousands of waterfalls. It was cold, rainy, and gloomy, but we didn't care. We were the only boat in the entire fjord at Doubtful, whereas Milford was much more crowded. We did commit to a full day in Doubtful, whereas we had an easy 30 min flight and an hour boat trip in Milford, so we had more time for other activities. If you have the time, go to both! If we were pressed to pick, I would probably say that Doubtful was my favorite... but only by a sliver.
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